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Hanover borough won't crack on Easter egg hunt

A special-event fee may force the annual hunt to be moved from Moul Field

By Adam Michael

amichael@eveningsun.com

@goodoletwonames on Twitter

Posted:
01/27/2014 03:46:59 PM EST

Children in the oldest age group scramble to collect eggs during the sixth-annual Hanover Automotive Group community Easter egg hunt at Moul Field on Saturday, March 30, 2013 in Hanover. (Jeff Lautenberger — The Evening Sun)

As the clock counts down from five, kids look ready to burst, anxiously planning their path to fill Easter baskets or plastic buckets and bags with fluorescent plastic eggs.

After 30 seconds of ecstatic egg exploration, it's over.

"You say 'go' and it's a zoo," Ernie Marcum, the organizer of the event, said. "I'd never been to an Easter egg hunt before the first year we held it. I had no idea it's over so fast."

For six years, the manager at Hanover Hyundai/ Hanover Honda and his staff have prepared, planned and hosted the Hanover Easter Egg Hunt. What was once a 1,000-egg operation is now a 22,000 treat-filled spectacle. It takes months for his staff to fill and seal the eggs, four cars to transport them to the field, and dozens of volunteers to scatter them.

With public restrooms, electricity and running water, Moul Field makes the perfect location for the hunt. But with the borough assessing its $500 special event fee that was rolled out last spring, Marcum is considering new venues for the hunt.

"We do this for fun," Marcum said. "It's not a profit thing. We just do it for the kids. It's for the borough and the people. It's not for us."

Marcum said there was no town-wide Easter egg hunt before he and his crew took on the job. He started it after one of his employees, who lives in Hanover borough, was turned away from a Penn Township event because they weren't residents of Penn Township.

Just go to the Hanover Easter egg hunt, Marcum told him. But then he found out there was no such thing.

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As a result, Marcum called the borough office and volunteered to hold the annual event with no charge to the borough. Now it draws nearly 1,000 people each year, he said, adding that they have added a DJ and a dance party to the mix. Parents of children who once came to search for eggs now come back as volunteers, he said.

"We really believe we're doing something good for the community," he said. "We can't understand why they're charging us when we're doing something for free. This stuff doesn't happen in a couple of seconds."

Children run toward of field of thousands of eggs during the sixth-annual Hanover Automotive Group community Easter egg hunt at Moul Field on Saturday, March 30, 2013 in Hanover. (Jeff Lautenberger — The Evening Sun)

Mayor Ben Adams said council voted to put the fee in place to offset the cost of police patrols, electricity, bathrooms and upkeep of borough facilities. The $500 charge is an average of the borough's cost for hosting a special event, he said.

Marcum said he believes $500 is far more than the event costs the borough, and that the egg hunt was meant to be a gift for the borough and its residents.

"We've never had police at the event and we only need enough electricity to run a public announce system and a coffee maker," Marcum said. "As far as mowing the grass, I think they have to mow it anyway."

Adams said that he couldn't waive the fee, but that Marcum is welcome to try to ask borough council to do so. He also negotiated the use of fields at Hanover High School. He added that the event used to be held there when he was a kid.

"At the high school, there's no issue with kids running into traffic like at Moul Avenue," Adams said. "It's a private property and it's centrally located."

Marcum said he appreciated the offer, but hopes that the borough would change its stance. He said he doesn't use the event to promote his business, and hasn't considered fundraising for the $500 fee.

"If we have to go to the high school, we will," he said. "We don't want the Easter egg hunt to go away, but our first choice is to go to Moul Field just as we have for the last six years."